By Joyce Vance

Dear Listener, 

In 1975, federal judge Frank Johnson, in Montgomery, Alabama, ruled that the state's overcrowded and under-staffed prison system violated the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. He mandated specific improvements that Alabama needed to make to the state’s harsh prison system to bring it into compliance with the Constitution. 

In 2020, following more than 6 years of investigation, DOJ sued Alabama, arguing that its overcrowded and under-staffed prison system held people in unhygienic conditions, like Draper prison, which was so bad that the state closed it after DOJ found standing sewage in the facility and rats and maggots in the kitchen. DOJ also alleged it subjected prisoners to violence and sexual assault at the hands of both guards and other inmates.